Pencil Weighting

[Eric Roach]

The pencil I've been working on is 7.5" with a ~1" hip. The nose and tail taper to 3/8".

I use 1.25", ~.20 oz tail weights that are about 1/4" in diameter; the belly weight is a small bullet at .166 oz and sits just forward of the hip. Total lead amount is about .55 oz. Total finished weight with 2/0 VMCs is 2.3 oz. Wood is AYC. At rest it sits nearly straight up-and-down with about 1" above the waterline.

It walks beautifully, without the zig-zag-killing "nose bob" I experience walking most Gibbs. It thrashes moderately well, but that isn't what I had in mind when I set the hip distance and rear taper. I wanted something with a thin-ish profile that walked better than a Gibbs, and I found it in this design.

In my experience (so far), it seems you can design a pencil that walks very well, or thrashes-in-place very well; but there's too much compromise involved to get one to do both very well -- at least in a slim-ish profile.